The Malaya cricket team was a team that represented the combined territories of the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements in various international cricket matches between 1906 and 1961.
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Cricket has been played in Peninsular Malaysia since at least the 1880s.[1] The first match between the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements was played in 1905[2] and the combined Malaya team first played the following year, against Burma in Yangon, though the result is not known. Two matches were played against Australia in 1909.[1]
Beginning in 1920, Malaya replaced the Straits Settlements in a regular series of Interport matches against Hong Kong.[1] In November of that year, they traveled to Hong Kong, playing matches against Hong Kong and Shanghai.[3] They beat Hong Kong by 35 runs,[4] but lost to Shanghai by an innings and 140 runs.[5] Following these two matches, they joined forces with the Shanghai team to lose to Hong Kong by five wickets.[6] The visit was repeated in November 1924,[7] with Malaya losing to Shanghai by 89 runs[8] and to Hong Kong by 2 wickets.[9] They played Hong Kong at home in 1926, beating them by an innings and 112 runs on the Padang in Singapore.[10]
In June 1927, Australia, captained by Bert Oldfield, visited Malaya, and the Malayan side won the first match by 39 runs, their only win against a Test-playing nation.[11] A third visit to Hong Kong was made in November that year,[12] with Malaya losing by an innings to Shanghai[13] and Hong Kong.[14] In 1929, they lost to Shanghai by 1 wicket,[15] and to Hong Kong by four wickets.[16] The final visit in 1933 saw Malaya beat Hong Kong by 14 runs,[17] before gaining their first win over Shanghai by beating them by 50 runs.[18]
Little is known of Malaya's matches after World War II. The two results that are known are that Malaya beat Hong Kong by 1 wicket in December 1959,[1] and drew with the MCC in March 1961.[19]
The following players played for Malaya and also played first-class cricket: